Many products for sale to the public are placed in a primary package that is designed for display at the point of sale. One common practice is to place a quantity of the primary packages in a secondary container for shipping. The retailer must then remove the primary packages from the secondary container and hang them from a hook or place them in another container or on a costly permanent plastic or metal display fixture with spring loaded attachments. This solution is labor intensive and costly to the retailer.
To overcome this problem, packages have been designed that are used for both shipping the primary packages and then displaying them at the point of sale. These packages are especially convenient for the retailer, since it is not necessary for the retailer to remove the articles from a bulk shipping container.
One conventional container or tray for both shipping articles and then displaying them with maximum visual exposure at a point of sale comprises a tray having a smooth bottom wall and relatively narrow upstanding side walls. The articles are supported on the bottom wall and preferably extend above the side walls. For shipping, a cover is optionally placed over the tray loaded with articles or the loaded tray is placed in an outer shipping container to form a shipping package. When the shipping package reaches its destination the tray loaded with articles is removed from the shipping container and placed on a shelf or other surface for display and sale of the items supported in the tray.
Shipping and retail display trays having means for improvising access to the product are known in the art. However, the prior art retail display trays fail to provide a display tray formed from an integral flat piece of sheet material capable of receiving multiple of products in different sizes of compartments.
Therefore, it is desirable to have shipping and display tray that supports and displays different articles for optimum visibility at a point of sale without the need for separate inserts or excess material, thereby minimizing the complexity and cost of such display trays.